THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COPING STRATEGIES AND SCHOOL CLIMATE PERCEPTION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

Stress in the teaching profession is an important issue which deserves deeper professional attention. It is closely linked to work overload, inappropriate coping strategies, but also a shortage of teachers and a high degree of staff turnover. It can be assumed that increasing workload and stress for teachers may lead to poor work performance, i.e. quality of teaching, and may also result into a negative perception of climate in the workplace. The aim of the research was to map the high school teachers coping strategies, while at the same time to reveal the link with the school climate assessment, teachers' practice lengths and other variables. The survey was designed as a quantitative research. A questionnaire battery was used consisting of questionnaires OSI-R (Inventory of occupational stress) which evaluates the emotional, cognitive stress management and the coping strategy (personal resources for coping with stress) and one- dimensional assessment scale was used to determine the social climate among the teaching staff. The research sample consisted of 253 secondary school teachers from the Olomouc Region, of whom 76 were men and 177 were women. The age range of the entire sample was from 22 to 68 years (mean age 47.94 years; SD 9.58). The existence of a significant positive relationship was confirmed between the positive perception of the school climate and all coping strategies monitored - social support, relaxation, self-care, and rational / cognitive coping.